[2025] EWHC 2684 (KB)

DC Flynn was challenged about the absence of the transcript of the interview of Katharine Willan, who had been the unit manager at the Lodge. It was also suggested that there had been an aim to try and show that staff did not understand about extra care. I found this a strange proposition as staff either knew about extra care or they did not and it is difficult to see how words could be put in someone’s mouth on the issue.

Ms Willan’s statement was critical of the management of Cawston Park and in her view there was a lack of support from professionals (and there were not many professionals there). She stated;

“In relation to whether the patients received any care above the norm I can categorically state that as far as my PICU was concerned they did not get the basic care so they definitely didn't get anything extra.”

And

“There was no ‘extra care’ in relation to care over and above the normal care given. The only extra above the basic was when we had that one particular patient who would have been quite alarming in their behaviour and we might be allowed to hire two extra members of staff to boost up the team numbers. This did happen on a couple of occasions for the following patients; MG (she used her full name), JW and JO. When this happened the staff would be deployed to be with this patient for a certain number of hours a day but I can't remember if that was care planned in any way. We knew there would be someone throughout the day who would present differently so we would have a member of staff. In relation to charge for the patient I wouldn't know about that. I would have four staff and when we had actually got someone who was disturbed I would have requested that we have another one. As patient numbers increased we did have more staff but it was always after many discussions through Gary Cooper, to Dominic Wilson, We would then bring in agency members of staff and people would take it in turns to spend time with that individual.

Ultimately that may have been charged to someone else as an extra cost but that was not something that I was aware of. There may have been a time when a patient had someone assigned for a week but not permanently, not somebody all the time, because our patient numbers did not go up that much. At times we did have a few extra staff but I am not aware that was for anyone patient. The patient would not have extra staff all the time as some days they would have got up and been fine, so how could you say Patient A needed it every day.”

It is clear that she had a negative view of patient care and was sceptical of the extra care concept and it is unrealistic to suggest that she was somehow coached. The content of Ms Willan’s statement was briefly but accurately summarised within the summary by DS Brownsell.

DC Flynn was also taken to the transcript of the interview of Jeremy Woodhead, the former manager of the Grange. Within his statement Mr Woodhead referred to constantly having problems with staffing and that the company appeared to have a policy for employing unqualified staff without experience. He stated:

“In relation to ‘extra care’ I had heard the term mentioned but I knew we did not have an extra care suite. I had a naive idea that it meant something to with the environment in the Grange as opposed to the Manor, as the Grange was a low secure unit. I did not hear it talked about in any detail although I had thought about what was actually meant by extra care. I did not pay it a great deal of thought because of all the other things going on and it did not seem to mean a great deal to me. I was wondering if Andrew Breeze was talking about something in the future such as moving people onto something better. We certainly did not seem to be providing any extra care. It was a term I never heard until I was actually working in the Manor where I heard it mentioned once or twice accidentally. I heard Dominic Wilson talking about it and Mark Deveney talking about it to Dominic Wilson or Andrew Breeze, I don’t know if Simon Barker may have been there, it may have been during meetings.

We had regular meetings during the week to decide policies reviews of patients’ things like that. Andrew Breeze had a white board in his office upstairs with all the names of the patients on it and I think that some had mention of extra care against their names. I think they were highlighted in some way but I cannot remember how they were actually highlighted. I thought what does that mean but it was never explained to me. To be honest I did not really have time to sit down and think about it as when I was not looking after the patients I would catch up with paperwork and other things. It was quite a difficult working environment and one incident or another was always going on. There was always something that needed doing. Extra care does not mean anything at all to me. I am not aware of any patients that received any extra treatment.”

It was suggested to DC Flynn that the statement did not accurately reflect all that Mr Woodhead had said, including that he could see that:

“The type of people that we had would have demanded some sort of focus or extra care of some description because they were worse than the average psychiatric patient. Whether they meant that because we have this secluded environment and you've got the secure environs or what I don't know, but it (extra care) was a term I never heard until I was actually working in the Manor and I heard it mentioned once or twice accidentally…(but it was never explained to you then?)…No it didn't, it wasn't explained to me and to be honest with you I probably didn't really have the time to sit and think about it too much because of the pressure of working in that kind of situation..”

DC Flynn stated that he believed that the statement was a fair explanation of what Mr Woodhead had said. Having considered the transcript and the statement I accept that it is a reasonably accurate statement although for obvious reasons not verbatim. Mr Woodhead also had the opportunity to add to or delete from the draft statement if he had any concerns about it accuracy. As Mr Warnock pointed out Mr Woodhead stated during the interview that he was not aware of any patient who received any additional or extra treatment to what was normally offered. Most significantly I find that any omission was not due to malice.

Within the summary DS Brownsell stated;

“…Woodhead became a unit manager at the hospital. Woodhead has said that he had a naive idea the extra care was something to do with the environment in the Grange as opposed to the manor. He had heard the phrase, but did not give it any thought other than to wonder whether it was about moving people on to anything better. He said that Cawston Park was certainly not providing any extra care. He is not aware of any patients receiving any other treatments.”

In my view this was a reasonable precis of the statement. It was not deliberately “slanted”.

DC Flynn was asked about the PwC report (which he stated in his statement that he had read). It was suggested that he did not give the contents sufficient weight (no particular part or extract was put to him). He stated that he did not consider it was positive evidence that could assist the Claimants. I accept that this was his honest view.